I still remember eating my first Slim Jim, at the age of 5, purchased from the concession stand at my neighbor Mitch Mitchell’s softball game. In the three decades since, I’ve probably consumed enough of the salty meat-like sticks to feed a small island nation for a few weeks, but I’ve never once wanted to know what goes into making one of them. [More]

A ConAgra plant near Raleigh, N.C., that makes and packages Slim Jim beef jerky was rocked by a huge explosion on Tuesday, killing three employees and sending dozens of workers and three firefighters to hospital with severe burns or “exposure to toxic fumes.”